Rural Arts Connect

Tracy Gallegos

“In the public education realm, being rural often means prioritizing the academic and social/ emotional needs of the dominant culture of students over the needs of the historically underserved students. Since we are a local control state, our local school boards have a lot of power and influence over how their school districts are run. In addition to this challenge, there is a huge disparity of diverse school leaders in rural Colorado. Both of these factors have led to unfavorable results for many students, especially students from diverse ethnic and racial backgrounds, multi-lingual students who are not yet fluid in English, students whose cultural norms are not part of the mainstream culture of the community they live in, and students with learning disabilities. Thank goodness there are well-intended art centers and museums all over our RAC region that are willing and able to provide intentional opportunities to expose these underserved student populations to programming that can help them feel valued, important, and seen and heard! Our RAC partners have such an amazing opportunity to help change lives and improve community perspectives.”

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